Paper Is Journal's Best

By Sean Smith
Staff Writer

Assoc. Prof. Chester Stachow (Biology) and former doctoral student Zhiyi Han were awarded the 1995 Chromosoma Prize for the best research article published in the international journal Chromosoma during 1994.

The publication's editors cited Stachow and Han's article, "Analysis of Schizosaccharomyces pombe Mitochondrial DNA Replication By Two Dimensional Gel Electrophoresis," for contributing to the field of chromosome research using modern methods. The article describes Stachow and Han's efforts to characterize the replication of mitochondrial DNA in fission yeast. Because the process has not been fully elucidated, the editors said, "this paper contributes important aspects to our understanding [of] eukaryotic replication mechanisms."

"The prize meant a lot," Stachow said. "We worked long and hard and the techniques we used were very demanding. Having our article singled out was a total surprise and quite inspiring."

"This is the first time in the department's history that one of our faculty has been singled out for such an honor by a prestigious and internationally recognized journal," said Biology Chairman Assoc. Prof. William Petri. " Chromosoma is a peer review journal that has an outstanding reputation in genome research. It is an achievement in which Chet and Zhiyi can take great pride."